Confetti Soap - Why do the math like this?

[Karmic]

I love watching Tree Marie soap videos. Some people might find her constant talking annoying but it really helps me to understand why she does some of the things she does. She's also an uber perfectionist and sometimes it's just fun to watch her fuss over everything on camera. This weekend she uploaded a video about making confetti soap.



In it she talks about having to change the amount of soap batter because of the added confetti. Makes sense. But the way she does it just seems so over the top complex for me. She goes through this whole thing about figuring out the amount of oils in the confetti. I am still getting over my sinus infection and my brain can't math well at the moment, but I'm not understanding why she needs the amount of oils instead of just the weight of the confetti. Can anyone explain? Or is there a simpler way to do this?

 

[Kari Howie]

Holy smokes! I just make batter and dump in the confetti. No math required.

 

[Karmic]

Holy smokes! I just make batter and dump in the confetti. No math required.

See that's what has me so confused! Like, I could understand if it somehow affected the saponification of the new soap but, it shouldn't because the confetti is already saponified and isn't really "oils" per se at this point. So it just kind of seems extraneous to me. But again, I'm new to this and know nothing so I was like "maybe there's a reason???"

 

[Kari Howie]

Well there may be a reason that some of our more seasoned soapers can enlighten us with, but like I said I just dump it in.

Take a look at other folks’ vids, like Soap Queen. She probably has something on confetti soap.

 

[cmzaha]

I do the same as Kari If I end up with a little to much batter I just pour it into one of my overflow molds. No perfection here

 

[Microchick]

Well I think she did all that math because she uses soapcalc and you can’t enter a batch weight like you can in SMF. I said adios to soapcalc.
Now, why does she say the recipes of the confetti should be similar to the new batch?

 

[jcandleattic]

Now, why does she say the recipes of the confetti should be similar to the new batch?

If you are selling, it's for labelling purposes. You would need to know the amounts of oils in the confetti as well as in your base recipe to label correctly.

 

[dixiedragon]

You can enter a batch weight in Soap Calc. But I have no idea why she is doing all of that! You do want to make sure that you have enough new soap so you don't accidentally end up with skinny bars (unless you are going for that). I also don't think the composition of the soap really matters, in terms of making confetti soap. One time I made confetti soap out of a batch that had too little lye, so the soap was soft and oily. My new batch of soap I chose to make with a 2% superfat to balance out the extra oils in the confetti. But that was because of the qualities I wanted in my soap, it had nothing to do with the process of confetti soap.

I couldn't watch it all - did she ever explain why? I am wondering if she is a perfectionist and doesn't want ANY extra soap, so she wants to make the EXACT amount she needs? But even so...just weigh the soap. If it's new soap, it hasn't lost much water and so it weighs about the same as soap batter.

I shoot for about a 50/50 ratio. So I make a batch that is 1 log of soap, add 1 log of shreds and pour it into 2 logs. I always keep a few individual molds handy for overs.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I use my bigger mold ( which takes 1300g oils) but I use my smaller mold recipe (1000g) oils. I then chuck in a truck load of confetti and it usually fits. If not, as @cmzaha says - I just plop the leftovers into a few cavity molds so it's not wasted.
I'm very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants soaper. There are no mistakes, just slightly different soaps to what i had planned

 

[Microchick]

You can enter a batch weight in Soap Calc. But I have no idea why she is doing all of that! You do want to make sure that you have enough new soap so you don't accidentally end up with skinny bars (unless you are going for that). I also don't think the composition of the soap really matters, in terms of making confetti soap. One time I made confetti soap out of a batch that had too little lye, so the soap was soft and oily. My new batch of soap I chose to make with a 2% superfat to balance out the extra oils in the confetti. But that was because of the qualities I wanted in my soap, it had nothing to do with the process of confetti soap.

I couldn't watch it all - did she ever explain why? I am wondering if she is a perfectionist and doesn't want ANY extra soap, so she wants to make the EXACT amount she needs? But even so...just weigh the soap. If it's new soap, it hasn't lost much water and so it weighs about the same as soap batter.

I shoot for about a 50/50 ratio. So I make a batch that is 1 log of soap, add 1 log of shreds and pour it into 2 logs. I always keep a few individual molds handy for overs.

I can’t see where you can enter a batch weight. Don’t tell me my eyesight is going too!

 

[Obsidian]

I can’t see where you can enter a batch weight. Don’t tell me my eyesight is going too!

Right here, in section 2. Chose which weight units you want then in the green box, you put in the weight.

 

[cmzaha]

Ironically, I am probably the most math-challenged here and I follow where she is going with this and will try it next time. I always felt there had to be a way to figure out how much oil to use when making confetti soap.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I then chuck in a truck load of confetti and it usually fits. If not, as @cmzaha says - I just plop the leftovers into a few cavity molds so it's not wasted.

same here--I just use one recipe so no worries on labeling. I love making confetti soap and I only have a few bars left so I can make some more in the future I got a little carried away with it when I first made it and I made 5 batches. I just love all the colors

 

[Karmic]

I couldn't watch it all - did she ever explain why? I am wondering if she is a perfectionist and doesn't want ANY extra soap, so she wants to make the EXACT amount she needs? But even so...just weigh the soap. If it's new soap, it hasn't lost much water and so it weighs about the same as soap batter.

No she never really explains why she does the math this way, but if you watch the video you can see she is very much a perfectionist. At one point after she planes her soap she takes little bits of the scrap and uses her pallet knife to try to fill in the little holes left by air bubbles in her bars. Like I said she can be very fussy in her videos over her bars and micas and everything, sometimes it's amusing.

Ironically, I am probably the most math-challenged here and I follow where she is going with this and will try it next time. I always felt there had to be a way to figure out how much oil to use when making confetti soap.

If you follow can you explain? Why go calculate the amount of oils instead of just subtracting the weight of the confetti?

 

[Microchick]

Right here, in section 2. Chose which weight units you want then in the green box, you put in the weight.

But that is wt of oils, not the total batch.

 

[SoapingWet]

It seems like she is trying to achieve a known, specific batch weight once the confetti is added, maybe so that she can have the same size of bars come out of her mold as her other soaps.

If she just added the confetti bits to her normal, unadjusted base recipe, the end result would be a batch that would be taller in the mold and might not work for her packaging or labeling.

Alternately, she could have made her normal batch and not put as much batter in the mold. Since she is quite the perfectionist, I suspect that she doesn't want to have leftover batter.

Regarding calculating weight of oils vs. gross weight of confetti...calculating weight of oils for the confetti eliminates the unknown of how much water may have evaporated from the confetti bits since soaping them originally.

IMO, maybe a little bit overkill given the small amount of confetti and the small batch size, but some of us get really excited about being overkill on the tiny details! It tickles the engineer side of my brain to calculate a bunch of stuff and then have it turn out exactly as I expected. Soaping lets me be an engineer/chemist away from work without the ramifications of messing up the things I deal with at work.

 

[cmzaha]

I would say Soapwet explained it just fine.

But that is wt of oils, not the total batch.
Microchick when we are figuring out how much to fill our molds we use this formula to figure out the amount of oil Length x width x height x .40 = amount of oil our mold will require. Which is why we fill in the box with the weight of oils we want. It will work quite close. My total batch weight is approx 91 oz and requires 59 oz of oils which I never vary. This is why she likes to figure out the oil content of her confetti. But It really is a very small amount in her case. I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to confetti.

If you happened to notice post#15 it is the formula I used that came up with 200 oz of oil to fill her mold.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/multiple-batches-same-mold.76817/

 

[Microchick]

Yes I know all that. Not making myself clear, sorry about that. I’ll watch her video again tomorrow. Thanx y’all!,

 

[Jess_]

While I love watching Tree Marie Soapworks, I too found this video overly confusing. I made a batch of confetti soap over the weekend, my first time. And I, as others have said, just threw my grated soap in at medium trace, stirred and poured into the mould, making sure to bang out any air bubbles afterwards. I cut my soap yesterday and it turned out fantastically! I definitely don’t think all the extra maths is necessary. Have you posted a comment on her video asking why she did this? She seems like the kind of person who would happily reply and try to help

 

[TheGecko]

In it she talks about having to change the amount of soap batter because of the added confetti. Makes sense. But the way she does it just seems so over the top complex for me. She goes through this whole thing about figuring out the amount of oils in the confetti. I am still getting over my sinus infection and my brain can't math well at the moment, but I'm not understanding why she needs the amount of oils instead of just the weight of the confetti. Can anyone explain? Or is there a simpler way to do this?

I have a 2-lb mold. I use 33 oz of oils/butters + the weight of water and lye. Now I want to make a Confetti Soap...how exactly do I adjust my recipe to account for the ‘confetti’? Do I just weigh the ‘confetti’ and subtract it from...what? The weight of my oils, the weight of my batch? By figuring the weight or oils in my ‘confetti’, I can subtract that weight from my oil weight and it will give me the adjusted weights of all my ingredients and the proper amount of water and lye.

If you are selling, it's for labelling purposes. You would need to know the amounts of oils in the confetti as well as in your base recipe to label correctly.

So glad your brought up.

I didn’t even think about it, I was just dumping all my bits and pieces in a tub. Then I was watching a video who was making a Confetti Soap and I dumped that tub because it contained regular soap AND goat milk soap AND it contained walnut shells, pumice, coffee grounds and salt.

While the US might not be as stringent as other countries when it comes to labeling ALL ingredients in a soap, for someone who is highly allergic to nuts, they could be harmed by even the smallest amount. For someone who is expecting to purchase what they think is a ‘vegan’ soap...it’s just not worth it. It’s not that hard to trim regular and goat milk soaps separately and just toss the ‘exfoliating’ trimmings.